June 29, 2010

we've been using baby sign language with jude since he was about 6 months old. we started with milk, and now we do: all done, dog, eat, more, mama, and dad. i've read all over about how baby-signing is great, how it helps them communicate earlier, have a larger vocabulary when they do start talking and blah blah blah. i know the benefits. but lord is it frustrating.

we're right at that stage where he WANTS to tell us things but can't talk and refuses to sign. when he gets super desperate he will sometimes sign milk and he yells m-m-m-m-m-moooo when i sign more, clearly understanding what it means, but that's about it. he still only occasionally waves hello or goodbye. he's such an ultra zen personality that i'm not sure he particularly cares right now.

i imagine that baby-signing is a lot like starting a new workout routine. you start and you get on a schedule. you have to do it every day and you just have to keep doing it all the time even though you won't see the results immediately. after a few weeks you're like GODDAMMIT I'VE BEEN RUNNING WHY AREN'T I SKINNIER/FITTER/FASTER!? and you think about quitting. and if you're me, you DO quit, because GODDAMMIT. but if you can make it past that then suddenly SHABAM! the weight loss and fitness happen. but you have to hang in there and keep going long enough to make it to the payout.

that's where i feel like we are with the freaking signing. when! when will this payout happen!? this development stage is challenging me. in between two worlds; he's right on the cusp of so many things, of walking and talking and communicating and playing but not... quite... there... he's frustrated because he isn't quite as independent as he thinks he is and i just want to have a damned conversation already because i can see how close he is, i can taste it and crush it up in my hand and put it in my coffee.

not a baby. not a toddler. not a boy. what ARE you, my little buddhist person, besides angry that i don't know that GARMAMALA !! means you want to go stand up by the laundry basket?

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comments:

I know how frustrating this can be! I have been working on those same basic signs with the little boy I nanny since he was six months old as well. He is now 18 months old and still isn't talking (he'll say bye, or mama, or cracker sometimes). I was getting bummed out about the fact that he wasn't at least signing anything we had been working on and just last week out of the blue he looked at me and signed, "more, please" and then "thank you" after i gave him the cracker. Crazy babies! Hopefully Jude will start soon, hang in there!

I've been doing a sign for milk with my son (11 months) and I think he finally understands. I pat my chest as the sign for "nurse." Lately, I realized that he's been slapping my chest instead of his when he's desperate to nurse. I think my baby sign backfired hilariously.

We did BSL with D and he said mama and dada early but that was it for awhile. He really took off talking about 20 months and now we can't make him hush. He was a Zen baby like Jude. (In fact most of the things you say remind me directly of him.)

Didn't do it with K and he started saying mama at 6 months and now has 8 words at 9 months. He has always been a chatted little guy though. Constent noise since birth I'm sayin here. He is going to be the one who gets in trouble for repeating mama's Nintendo words at school.

He will talk in his own time. They are all different. You are right though, he is right on the edge. It's so frustrating for them to want to do so much and not be able. It will get better though and if he is as much like D as I think, you are going to have SO much fun.

I so feel your frustration. Jay is 9 and still doesn't talk a lot because of the CP. He can do some signs, which helps, and we've kind of figured out our own communication over the years. But poor Micah is clueless over what Jay wants half the time.

It makes me feel completely helpless to not be able to know what Jay wants or needs when he is babbling non-stop. It's really been hit and miss with us.

Soon you'll be wishing for the days before talking because Jude will be gabbing a mile a minute!

We did not do baby sign language, but Alexa seems to have picked some up on her own. Is that even possible? Maybe some are just intuitive?

But I hear you loud and clear! It's soooo hard when they want something, they know exactly what that is...but you have no freakin' clue what their grunting and pointing is referring to. I just grab everything in the general direction..or...hehe...turn her around :P

That's funny- I had a very similar rant about a month ago and then right as Max turned 11 months- BAM all of a sudden he's signing eat and drink. Like you said before, sounds like the Jude bides his time until he's really mastered something and then is off and running to kick its ass :)